Tag: Toronto Police

Remembering a Humble Hero: Henry Earl Scott MM

Researched and Written by Matthew Scarlino.

Note: This article was originally written in September 2017 and a version was featured on TPS News.

Throughout this 150th year of Canadian Confederation, Canadians look through our past to identify our greatest heroes and celebrate those qualities which have made and continue to make this country an amazing nation. Today we remember Patrol Sergeant Henry Earl Scott, M.M., one of the most distinguished police officers in the history of the Toronto Police Service. Twice decorated for exceptionally brave deeds – by Kings George V and George VI respectively; he is only one of two Canadians ever awarded both the Military Medal and the King’s Police and Fire Services Medal for Gallantry.

Patrol Sergeant H. Earl Scott in winter patrol dress, 1928.

Like many heroes, Henry Earl Scott (who went by his middle name Earl) came from humble beginnings. Scott was born on May 8th, 1882 in Beeton, Ontario, to Robert and Ann Scott. Earl grew up in the town an hour north of Toronto with his four brothers and two sisters. Not much is known about these early years but it is believed he helped with his father’s local lumber business. As Earl Scott grew older, he left Beeton and traveled to the City of Toronto, moving into 82 Gloucester Street.

At 28 years of age, Scott joined the Toronto Police Force on April 1st, 1910, the same year his father died. Scott served the next few years as Police Constable No. 24 in the bustling downtown core of the growing city. In 1913, Scott made the newspaper, along with his partner P.C. Edward Koster, after raiding a Queen Street Opium den, arresting 15 men and seizing $3,600 worth of drugs – a modern-day value of $77,000 when adjusted for inflation.

In late 1914, soon after the outbreak of the First World War, Earl Scott went on military leave to enlist as a Private in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, as many other Toronto Police officers were doing at the time. Scott enlisted with the 2nd Divisional Cyclist Corps, an elite unit of bicycle mounted infantry, recruited from men deemed to have above-average intelligence and fitness. The army doctor who inspected Scott noted his modest appearance with some unflattering notes – describing him as a “dark ruddy” man with blue eyes and brown “mud coloured” hair. He was just over 5’10 with a chest measuring 41 inches. Scott and his fellow Cyclists began their advanced training to act as scouts, sentries, trench guides, stretcher-bearers, prisoner escorts, dispatch riders and couriers. In the spring of 1915, after some local training, he sailed to England on the SS Corinthian, bound for the trench-ridden and battle-scarred Western Front in France and Belgium.

By the fall of 1916, a major offensive on the River Somme pitting France and Britain against Germany, was in full swing and had cost hundreds of thousands of casualties.

On the morning of October 8th, 1916, now Corporal Scott was detailed to command a squad of stretcher-bearers forward of the town of Courcelette, where British and Canadian troops were fighting the German 1st Army for control of the Ancre Heights. In the previous 72 hours, the bitter fighting there had cost the lives of Toronto constables Alfred Sim and Francis Smith, and wounded PC James Farlow.

On the following day, with the battle still raging, the following deeds took place which made Scott stand out among his peers. Now staged in the front line with the battle raging all around, Scott heard a strained voice calling “Stretcher!” and sprang into action leading his men over broken ground to the casualty. Scott and his men were unarmed and had white armbands marked “S.B.” in red – this was supposed to prevent them from being targeted. But all around him, Scott’s fellow stretcher-bearers were being cut down by bullets, artillery, and gas. Among the chaos, Scott found the wounded man, and two more. What happened next was nothing short of incredible. Scott picked up the helpless soldier and ran, without help, 275 metres to the Advanced Dressing Station under heavy artillery fire. After dropping the man off, Earl turned around and made his way back to the wounded men, picked up another, and carried him back through to safety. Stunned observers watched our hero take off a third time through the murderous fire. To their amazement, he soon-after reappeared, exhausted, with the last wounded man.

Left: Bringing in the Wounded, 1916; Right: The Military Medal

By midnight, Scott and the surviving stretcher-bearers returned to their camp exhausted. Their party had suffered 11 casualties over the last two days at the front. His superior, made aware of the incident, recommended Scott for the Military Medal, a decoration for bravery in action. The recommendation read “On the 9th October while in charge of a party of stretcher bearers engaged in bringing in wounded from the front line to the advanced dressing station unaided, carried in instant succession, three wounded men, three hundred yards under heavy shell fire.” A notice in the London Gazette on January 6th, 1917 announced that “His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to award the Military Medal for bravery in the Field to … 76 Cpl. H.E. Scott, Cyclist Bn.”

The War to End All Wars carried on for another two years but Scott survived, and once demobilized, returned to Toronto. Earl moved in with his widowed mother Ann, at 316 Garden Avenue in Parkdale, and returned to duty with the Toronto Police Force. Scott was soon promoted to Patrol Sergeant, at the Queen and Claremont Streets’ No. 3 Station. Scott found that he had come back to a different city, it was now the prosperous “Roaring ’20s”, the population was booming, and the relative unity and peace during the war was over. Most notably, Prohibition had been in effect since 1916. Police had their hands full enforcing the Ontario Temperance Act, and dealing with all the crime and violence of underground liquor consumption and black market trade. In those years, the now 42-year-old Earl Scott finally met the love of his life. He married May Hesson in 1925, with his mother Ann as his witness.

The 1920s came and went, and the 1930s brought in the Great Depression. Unemployment was at an all-time high, the city was crowded, and violent bank hold-ups and labour demonstrations were the new normal. In 1933, at one such demonstration in Trinity-Bellwoods Park, a lone constable was mobbed by the angry crowd. Responding to the call for assistance, Patrol Sergeant Scott arrived to the melee where he and his fellow officers were also attacked. They managed to disperse the crowd but not before our hero received a blow to the eye so hard he was sent home to recover.

Scott returned to duty soon after and, in 1935, was celebrated at a dinner with his peers after 25 years on the job at the Prince George Hotel where the TD Centre now stands. Earl Scott, however, was not finished protecting and serving the people of Toronto.

The Old No. 9 Police Station, Keele and Dundas Streets.

On Saturday, February 5, 1938, a greying 56-year-old Earl Scott was now assigned to No. 9 Station, at Keele and Dundas Streets in the city’s west end. When Sergeant Scott went into work for the night shift as the station duty sergeant, he had no reason to believe it would be anything but a quiet night. His duties were to manage the internal operations of the station for the night. Outside temperatures dropped below freezing after having rained all day. Scott was sitting at his desk as the hours passed when, just after 2 a.m., he heard a muffled gunshot and shouting outside. Scott immediately grabbed a flashlight and ran out to the street to find a 30-year-old Norman Ford shot in the gut and dying on the sidewalk in front of the police station. A married couple, passing by, witnessed the shooting and saw the perpetrator flee down an alleyway, so Scott ran south on Keele Street in order to cut him off.

Suddenly, he encountered the man coming out from the laneway by the nearby post office.

Out of the darkness, as Scott’s eyes fixed on the threat, he saw the suspect aiming a .32 automatic pistol. Click. The gun jammed. Scott threw a powerful right hook, knocking him to the ground where the sergeant wrestled the man who again tried to shoot him. Scott overpowered the killer, pried the gun from his hands, and brought him to his feet under arrest.

Left: Shorty Bryans’ arrest mugshot. Right: The heroic arresting officer Scott is photographed by the Globe and Mail.

The murderer was identified as Thomas “Shorty” Bryans, a career criminal who had broken out of the Kingston Penitentiary in 1923 where he was serving time for Manslaughter. Bryans had been a member of the Red Ryan Gang, notorious for violent robberies, hold-ups and murders throughout Southern Ontario since the early 1920s.

While newspaper editors praised Scott’s bravery and his restraint in not shooting the suspect, it came out later that our hero was actually unarmed throughout the incident. As the station duty sergeant, Scott was not wearing a gun belt as usual. After finding the shooting victim out front of the station, and with utter disregard for his own safety, Scott immediately chased after the suspect, fearing any delay could allow the perpetrator to escape and kill again.

In the aftermath, Chief Draper recommended Scott for the King’s Police and Fire Services Medal for Gallantry, a decoration instituted by King Edward VII in 1909 to recognize exceptional bravery by individuals in the emergency services throughout the British Empire.

Meanwhile, for his latest crime, “Shorty” was sentenced to hang, smirking in court when his sentence was read. Bryans’ execution was carried out four months later at the Don Jail.

Scott quietly continued working until, after 32 years on the job, he retired on May 1, 1942. After years of bureaucratic process, award of the King’s Police Medal was announced by Canada’s Secretary of State in the Canada Gazette on March 20, 1943. Ten days later, at a yearly police parade and inspection at St Paul’s Church on Bloor Street East, a now-retired Scott was presented his decoration by Lieutenant-Governor The Honourable Albert E. Matthews on behalf of King George VI, becoming one of only 32 Canadian police officers ever decorated with the award.

Retired Patrol Sgt. H.E. Scott being presented with the King’s Police and Fire Services Medal for Gallantry. At right, a close up of a KPFSM medal.

Earl Scott then lived out the rest of his days in the companionship of his loving wife, May, until he passed away on April 27, 1955, at the Toronto Western Hospital. Scott is buried at Trinity United Cemetery in his home town of Beeton, Ontario.

In keeping with the highest traditions of the Toronto Police Service, our humble Patrol Sergeant Henry Earl Scott spent his life putting others before himself, to protect and serve, and should be forever remembered as a true Canadian hero.

With Thanks to Jack Templeman and Bob Pyefinch.

Photo Credits:

  • “Patrol Sergeant H. Earl Scott, M.M., in winter patrol dress, 1928” Courtesy of The City of Toronto Archives,
  • Fonds 1266, Item 13017
  • “Bringing in the Wounded near Albert, 1916” Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum ©IWM Q752
  • “The Military Medal” Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum ©IWM OMD5788
  • “The Old No. 9 Police Station” Courtesy of the Toronto Reference Library, Baldwin Collection Item S 1-854.
  • “Shorty Bryans’ mugshot.” Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada
  • “Scott photographed by the Globe and Mail.” Courtesy of City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266 Item 49441
  •  “Retired Patrol Sgt. H.E. Scott, being presented with the KPFSM for Gallantry” Courtesy of the Pyefinch Collection
  • “The King’s Police and Fire Services Medal.” Courtesy of the Pyefinch Collection

Sources and further reading:

  • Grasett, H. (1915) Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto for the year 1914 – p. 48. Toronto, ON: The Carswell Company Limited.
  • Draper, D. (1939) Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto for the year 1938 – p. 39-40. Toronto, ON: The Carswell Company Limited.
  • Templeman, J. (2017) To Guard My People: The King’s Police and Fire Service Medal in Canada – p. 51-52. Winnipeg, MB: Leadthrough.
  • McCreery, C. (2015) The Canadian Honours System, 2nd Edition – p. 116-117, 125-128. Toronto, ON: Dundurn Press.
  • Blatherwick, J. (2016) King’s Police and Fire Services Medal, Plus Other Medals to Police and Fire Services In Canada. Blatherwick.net
  • The London Gazette. (1917, January 6th) Supplement 29893 to the London Gazette, Page 350.
  • The Canada Gazette. (1943, March 20th) No. 12, Volume LXXVII, Page 1256.
  • Toronto Daily Star. (1913, October 24th) Fifteen Chinamen Taken In, p. 11; (1920, January 14th) Several Promotions Made in Police Force, p. 3. (1938, February 7th) Sergeant Fells Alleged Slayer With Fist Blow, p. 1; Note and Comment, p. 4; Alleged Murderer Remanded After Shooting, Sec. 2 p. 1. (1938, February 9th) Police Learn N. Ford Feared Man in Cafe Armed with Revolver, p. 1; (1938, October 20th) Even Men Going to Jail Like Insp Chisholm, Sec. 2 p. 1 & 27; (1943, May 20th) 3 Police Officers Win King’s Medals, Sec. 2 p. 2.
  • The Globe. (1933, June 5th) Crowd is Dispersed After Hot Fight, p. 11; (1935, April 10) Celebrate Quarter Century on Vimy Night, p. 11.
  • The Globe and Mail. (1938, February 7th) Toronto Murder Laid to One of Ryan Gang, p. 1; (1938, April 29th) Thomas Bryans Smiles at Sentence of Death, p. 5; (1942, April 28th) Sgt E. Scott Resigns Force, p. 4; (1943, May 31st) King’s Medal Rewards Courage of Policemen, p. 7; (1955, April 29th) HE Scott etc., p. 4.
  • Archives of Ontario. Registration of Births and Stillbirths 1869-1913; Ontario Canada Select Marriages.
  • Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada 1891, 1901, 1911, 1921. Personnel Records of the First World War; Military Honours and Awards Citations Cards 1900-61; War Diaries of the Canadian Corps Cyclist Battalion 1916/05/12 to 1919/03/31; Capital Punishment Case Files – 1938 – Bryans, Thomas.

Remembering Our Vimy Fallen

Written and Researched by Matthew Scarlino.

Note: This article was originally in written in April 2017. Versions of this article were published in Blue Line Magazine and featured on TPS News.

On Sunday, April 9th, 2017, Canadians will mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, which took place during the First World War. At that point, it was Canada’s largest force ever fielded and its four divisions fought together for the first time and achieved a major victory on a position previously thought impregnable. It gained Canada international praise and led to greater independence – but it came at a cost.

PC 274 Samuel H. MacGowan, PC 374 Andrew Johnson, PC 451 William H. Haynes, and PC 540 Robert C. Clarke
(National Memorial Album of Canadian Heroes and Toronto Evening Telegram)

Canada’s greatest single-day loss in a war that spanned four years would occur on Easter Monday, April 9th, 1917 on that now-legendary escarpment. Over 10,000 Canadians would become casualties in ensuing 48 hours.

At least 156 Toronto Police members fought in the Great War, and four of its 27 members killed in action fell at Vimy Ridge. Their loss remains a poignant reminder of the tragedy of war. This is the story of Toronto Police Constables Robert Cunningham Clarke, William Henry Haynes, Andrew Johnson, and Samuel Henry MacGowan.

An officer directs traffic at Yonge and King in 1912
(City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244 Item 491)

In the early 1910s, Toronto was Canada’s second largest city, with a population of 380,000 souls. The Toronto Police Force, as it was then called, was responsible for keeping the peace with a strength of about 600 police officers and a handful of civilian employees.

The summer of 1914 would see the world change forever. A complex system of competing alliances and empires throughout Europe resulted in the “July Crisis,” unleashing a chain of events in which, among other declarations of war, Germany invaded Belgium and France. Great Britain, bound by friendship and treaties, in turn declared war on Germany. Canada, a Dominion of the British Empire, was automatically at war.

Many Canadians, including many Toronto Police members sworn and civilian, joined the military, eager to defend their values and “do their bit” for King and Country. Even a contingent of Toronto’s police horses were donated for service with the artillery (sadly, only “Bunny” would survive the war). 

Four constables in particular would have their fate permanently intertwined with a significant moment in Canadian history.

  • Police Constable No. 274 Samuel Henry MacGowan, an Irish immigrant, joined the Toronto Police Force in 1911 at 23 years old. His post was the downtown No. 1 Police Station, on Court Street near Church Street. “Sam” lived with his brother Hugh at 733 Markham Street.
  • Police Constable No. 374 Andrew Johnson, also born in Ireland, joined the Force in 1912 when he was just 20 years old. He policed Parkdale from the No. 6 Police Station at Queen Street West and Cowan Avenue.
  • Police Constable No. 451 William Henry Haynes, the only married man in the group, was an English immigrant and also joined the Toronto Police Force in 1912, at 25 years old. He policed the west end of the city from No. 9 Police Station at Keele Street near what is now Dundas Street West. He had a young wife, Lillie Haynes and two young children and lived at 518 Church St.
  • Police Constable No. 540 Robert Cunningham Clarke, another young man from Ireland, lived at 129 Alexander Street. He had previous police experience serving with the Royal Irish Constabulary. At 28 years old, Clarke became a Toronto Police officer.
The 180th Battalion leaves for War, Union Station. Toronto Police officers can be seen
in the crowd seeing the men off. (City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244 Item 821)

It was now 1914. The newly formed Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) was sent, piece by piece, to the battleground known as the Western Front.

When old-fashioned tactics met new battlefield technologies, such as quick-firing artillery, machine guns, and barbed wire, the front lines devolved into a system of trench warfare (the muddy, miserable trench would become the enduring image of the war), where both sides dug in to defensive positions. The barren area between the two sides became known as No-Man’s Land and was littered with shell-holes, debris, and corpses. The trench lines ran through Belgium and France, all the way from the North Sea to neutral Switzerland’s border. Attacks up and down the line would be repeatedly launched and repelled. Even more barbaric weapons such as poison gas and flamethrowers would be invented to try and dislodge the defenders and break the stalemate, yet the stalemate continued.

In August 1915, Constable Andrew Johnson put his career on hold and joined the
83rd (Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada) Battalion. Constable Robert Cunningham
Clarke enlisted with the 92nd (48th Highlanders of Canada) Battalion in September 1915. Both the Queen’s Own Rifles and 48th Highlanders are still active today in Toronto. In the early-winter months of 1916, Constable William Henry Haynes and Constable Samuel Henry MacGowan enlisted in Toronto’s 180th (Sportsmen) Battalion, which recruited local amateur athletes. All the men sailed to England to train for battle. The policemen were natural leaders, and all were promoted up the ranks – Clarke to Corporal and the others to Sergeant.

Clarke’s unit was broken up for reinforcements and he arrived in France, now with the 42nd (Royal Highlanders of Canada) Battalion, 3rd Canadian Division, and reached the front in August 1916. In November, during the Battle of Ancre
Heights, Clarke was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the head.

In the early winter months of 1917, allied commanders devised a plan to break the inertia in the Arras sector. Canadian forces, who had been fighting for the past few years in separate units and divisions spread throughout the British army, were to be massed as the Canadian Corps, near the enemy strongpoint on Vimy Ridge. The high ground was held by tough Bavarian units of the German army, and the position withstood years of attacks by British and French forces. It’s commanding view of the sector was strategically important.

Meanwhile, in England, Johnson, Haynes, and MacGowan were all eager to join the fight and reverted to the rank of Private in order to be sent to France as replacements. Upon arrival they became members of the 75th (Mississauga) Battalion – today known as the Toronto Scottish Regiment – in the 4th Canadian Division. They reached the front lines in February 1917, where the battalion was positioned near Vimy. On March 1st, they withstood some of the worst horrors of the war when their unit took part in a disastrous reconnaissance raid where, during the attack, Canadian chlorine gas blew back in their own direction while the enemy unleashed devastating fire on the struggling troops.

Clarke, meanwhile discharged from hospital, rejoined his 42nd Battalion which was also positioned near Vimy.

Leading up to the anticipated offensive, the Canadian General Arthur Currie, aside from the reconnaissance raids, introduced innovative new strategy in which his troops would conduct realistic battle rehearsals. In between stints in the trenches, the men drilled constantly on their roles and objectives. Secret mines and subways were built under No Man’s Land to get troops through some of the killing fields, and, for the final week leading up to the attack, Canada unleashed its largest ever artillery bombardment on the defenders of Vimy Ridge. Once the attack was launched the artillery would switch to a “creeping barrage” which moved ahead of the advancing infantry.

In the cold, wet early morning hours of April 9th, the day now at hand, the men were given rum rations and mugs of tea as they nervously waited for zero hour.

Canadians advancing through German entanglements, Vimy Ridge.
(Library and Archives Canada Item O-1158)

At 5:30am, a flare went up, infantry officers blew their whistles, and the men surged “over the top”, advancing forward and uphill. They gripped their rifles and instinctively tucked their chins into their collars as if the flying shrapnel were a hailstorm. PC Clarke was in this first wave of attacking troops. His 42nd Battalion reached and captured its first objectives by 7:00am, where they paused to regroup.

Further north, Constables Johnson, Haynes and MacGowan’s 75th Battalion was following lead elements of the push towards Hill 145 (the high point of the ridge), who were taking heavy casualties. By 8:00am, they had advanced further uphill but their brigade was in trouble – the lead battalions were decimated and the 75th were now in the front line pinned down taking heavy machine gun fire.

While they were held up, Clarke’s unit to the south was further forward, and therefore exposed. They started taking increasingly heavy fire, and were ordered to dig in in order to protect their brigade’s flank. Over the next four hours they suffered 200 casualties.

The battle raged on throughout the day. Clarke’s 3rd Division would be the first to hold their section of the ridge and look out to the plains beyond. Johnson, Haynes, and MacGowan’s 4th Division fought for Hill 145 into the following day where it ultimately succeeded.

Canadian troops dig in and set up machine guns in case of counter-attack.
(Library and Archives Canada PA-001017)

By the end of the day, “Sam” MacGowan, Andrew Johnson, William Haynes, and Robert C. Clarke were among Canada’s 3,598 men killed at Vimy Ridge. It is not known at which point the four men fell that day, or if any of them ever knew the battle was won.

News of the victory spread throughout the world, and many historians argue it was at this point that Canada came of age – Canadians ceased to think of themselves as a collection of former colonies but a unified nation, capable of achieving great things. The Canadian Corps went on to achieve many more great victories, and when the war was over, Canada had its own seat at the League of Nations (the precursor to today’s United Nations). Canada’s political and diplomatic independence grew from there into the system we are proud of today.

This April 9th, remember the Toronto Police officers whose bravery and ultimate sacrifice one hundred years ago helped make Canadian history and end the Great War. Sadly, the “War to End All Wars” was not the last, and Toronto Police members continue to serve our country overseas pursuing a better world.

Lest We Forget.

Today, Toronto Police horse “Vimy Ridge” is named in honour of the victory, pictured here at Vimy Ridge Parkette in Etobicoke with Constable Melanie Mathieu. (Toronto Police Service)

Sources and further reading:

  • H. Grasett – Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto, Nominal and Descriptive Roll of the Toronto Police Force. (1914, 1915, 1916, and 1917 editions).
  • Library and Archives Canada – Personnel Records of the First World War
    • Service File of No. 192383 Robert Cunningham Clarke
    • Service File of No. 862010 William Henry Haynes
    • Service File of No. 171257 Andrew Johnson
    • Service File of No. 862344 Samuel Henry MacGowan
  • Library and Archives Canada – War Diaries of the First World War.
    • 75th Canadian Infantry Battalion, 1916/08/11 – 1918/08/31.
    • 42nd Canadian Infantry Battalion, 1915/10/01 – 1918/05/31.
  • Library and Archives Canada – Circumstances of Death Registers. Register Cards of 192383 Robert Cunningham Clarke; 862010 William Henry Haynes; No. 171257 Andrew Johnson; 862344 Samuel Henry MacGowan.
  • Commonwealth War Graves Commission – Casualty Details of of 192383 Robert Cunningham Clarke; 862010 William Henry Haynes; No. 171257 Andrew Johnson; 862344 Samuel Henry MacGowan.
  • Toronto Public Library – Historical Newspapers Database:
    • The Toronto Daily Star (1917, April 17th), Page 7. “Went with Sportsmen”.
    • The Toronto Daily Star (1917, April 30th). “Former Policeman Killed”.
    • The Toronto Daily Star (1917, May 2nd), Page 14. “Sergt Haines Killed”
    • The Toronto Telegram (1917, May). “Sergt W M Haines”.
    • The Toronto Telegram (1917, June). “Buried at Vimy Ridge”.
    • The Toronto Daily Star (1917, June 23rd), Page 2. “Toronto Policeman Killed”.
    • The Toronto Evening Telegram (1918, March 15th). “West Toronto Police Honor Roll”.
  • Veterans Affairs Canada – Canadian Virtual War Memorial. Pages for 192383 Robert Cunningham Clarke; 862010 William Henry Haynes; No. 171257 Andrew Johnson; 862344 Samuel Henry MacGowan.
  • A. Turner – Vimy Ridge 1917: Byng’s Canadians Triumph at Arras. Osprey Publishing 2005.
  • J.L. Granatstein – Hell’s Corner: An Illustrated History of Canada’s Great War 1914-1918. Douglas & McIntyre 2004; Victory at Vimy Ridge. The Vimy Foundation 2017.
  • Veterans Affairs Canada – Historical Fact Sheets – Battle of Vimy Ridge.
  • D. Morton – Significance of Vimy Ridge. The Vimy Foundation 2017.